#Exxon #climate predictions were accurate decades ago. Still it sowed doubt
by Jeff Brady, January 12, 2023
"Decades of research by scientists at Exxon accurately predicted how much #GlobalWarming would occur from burning #FossilFuels, according to a new study in the journal Science.
"The findings clash with an enormously successful campaign that Exxon spearheaded and funded for more than 30 years that cast doubt on human-driven #ClimateChange and the science underpinning it. That narrative helped delay #federal and #international action on climate change, even as the impacts of climate change worsened.
"Over the last few years, journalists and researchers revealed that Exxon did in-house research that showed it knew that human-caused climate change is real. The new study looked at Exxon's research and compared it to the warming that has actually happened.
"Researchers at Harvard University and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research analyzed Exxon's climate studies from 1977 to 2003. The researchers show the company, now called #ExxonMobil, produced climate research that was at least as accurate as work by independent academics and governments — and occasionally surpassed it.
"That's important because ExxonMobil and the broader fossil fuel industry face lawsuits nationwide claiming they #misled the public on the harmful effects of their products.
"'The bottom line is we found that they were modeling and predicting global warming with, frankly, shocking levels of skill and accuracy, especially for a company that then spent the next couple of decades denying that very climate science,' says lead author Geoffrey Supran, who now is an associate professor of environmental science and policy at the University of Miami.
"The Earth already has warmed a little more than 1 degree Celsius (about 2 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-#industrial times of the late 1800s. That warming has led to #ExtremeWeather in recent years, including #Heatwaves, #droughts and #floods. The researchers found, for example, that Exxon's own modeling charted this kind of temperature increase.
"'Specifically, what we've done is to actually put a number for the first time on what Exxon knew, which is that the burning of their fossil fuel products would heat the planet by something like 0.2 [degrees] Celsius every single decade," Supran says."
Read more:
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/12/1148376084/exxon-climate-predictions-were-accurate-decades-ago-still-it-sowed-doubt
#ClimateCatastrophe #ClimateCrisis #ExxonKnew #HexonExxon #ExtremeWeather